Scary Stuff...

Matt and I got the scare of our lifetime this weekend when Henry had a febrile seizure due to a fever. I can't even begin to describe the horrible feeling of seeing your child passed out and unresponsive. In the end, it's really not a big deal and was over in a few minutes, but I think it felt like an eternity to us. And I think Matt and I both still have some post-traumatic stress from seeing the little guy like that.

The story... Henry woke up on Sunday morning with a bit of a cold and cough, but nothing too bad. Around lunchtime, he was a bit warm and still coughing, so I gave him some Tylenol before his nap. He woke up and was still warm, but since we couldn't give him more Tylenol until later that afternoon, we just waited it out. He was playing like normal, so he didn't even really seem sick.

I went to the gym for about an hour and came home around 3:30. As soon as I walked in the door, Matt said that Henry was still really warm, so I said I would run up to the store to get him some Motrin - we were out of it and it works better on him. I guess as soon as I left Henry kind of "froze up" and stared at the door for a while... Matt thought that maybe he was choking. But then he started seizing - he basically passed out, his eyes rolled back in his head and he was completely unresponsive. How scary for Matt, considering he was home alone with both kids.

He took Henry outside to cool him off and called me. I was just down the block, so I turned around and saw them in the front yard. We took Henry inside and took his clothes off and put him in the shower to cool him off some more. Right after that, he kind of "came to", but was still pretty out of it and shivering uncontrollably. Matt and I had both called 911 a few minutes earlier, so by that time, the police arrived and we were waiting for the paramedics. We took his temp - it was 102.9 - and gave him some Tylenol. He started jibber-jabbing nonsense, which was kind of scary, but the cops said that it's normal for them to do that - I guess their brain needs to "re-set" itself after a seizure and it doesn't cause any lasting harm. He even started singing the Thomas the Train theme song, but really, really quickly... kind of freaky. But I don't think we've ever been happier to hear him sing that song!

Henry got an ambulance ride to the hospital and they checked him out, complete with chest X-rays. The medieval torture-device that they put a toddler in for chest x-rays looks like this... needless to say, Henry was not happy (and I seriously don't know how they got that kid in the picture to be so calm!). But he really took everything very well and was back to his old self by the time we were discharged, thank God.

The doctor said that he had a respiratory virus, and that we should just keep him full of fluids and keep an eye on his temperature. He's totally OK - got checked out by his regular doc today - and was given a clean bill of health, other than his lingering cough. The doctor said that he won't remember it at all and it won't affect his health in any way. It's possible that it might happen again down the road until he's 5 or 6, but I guess it's pretty unlikely. And at least if it does happen, we know that it's scary for a few minutes, but he'll be OK. But for now, we're just so thankful that he's back to his normal, happy self!